Opioid Epidemic Deemed Public Health Emergency; Milwaukee County Hopes For More Funding

Vicodin is one of the prescription painkillers that some people abuse before turning to heroin.

Sharyn Morrow, Flickr

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Milwaukee County is in the midst of an opioid crisis. City officials and medical professionals say the lack of available funds in Milwaukee County to address substance abuse can be a roadblock to creating effective treatment and education.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump deemed the opioid crisis as a public health emergency and said that he plans to put a lot of time, effort and money into eliminating the crisis.

Last year, nearly 300 people died in Milwaukee County from drug overdoses. This year, the county is on track for a 25 percent jump in the number of deaths according to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s office.

City and state officials across Wisconsin have been reaching out to the community through public forums, public service campaigns and the formation of the City-County Heroin, Opioid and Cocaine Task Force. Now, Alderman Michael Murphy says, Milwaukee County is thinking of taking legal action against pharmaceutical companies to combat the issue.

“As you can imagine the cost has been an enormous impact on the county, but certainly on the city also and, you know, there may be some legal argument that the pharmaceutical industries may be culpable in terms of their responsibility for this public health crisis,” Murphy says.

Those costs being families who have lost loved ones and costs to the taxpayers as a result of the epidemic.

Across the country, there’s a growing number of lawmakers taking steps to challenge pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Sela Kurter, a Milwaukee area psychiatrist who has treated addiction patients. He says “it's good that they’re trying to find out who was at fault, but unfortunately, at the same time, we are dealing with a crisis where people are dying daily.”

Kurter says the increase in powerful pain medication and cheap access to heroin and fentanyl are some of the reasons substance abuse has reached epidemic proportions. He hopes that President Trump deeming the crisis as a health emergency will mean more access to funding for treatment in Milwaukee County.

More money for treatment is something Mayor Tom Barrett hopes for as well. Mayor Barrett says it’s an important first step to address this nationwide epidemic, and important for Milwaukee County.

“I’m optimistic about the intention of the order and now for it to be a game changer on this issue we really need the federal government to step up again and provide some funding so that we can use it for prevention and treatment.”

As far as the lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies, Barrett says he supports the idea and is ready to sign off. Lawsuits could apply pressure on the companies to be more responsible in how they dispense these drugs.

“The fact that we’ve got over 270 who’ve died from drug overdoses this year tells you how significant this problem is. That’s more than double, almost triple the people who have died from homicides in the city of Milwaukee so this is a very serious public health epidemic,” he says.

Mayor Barrett says the city-county task force has developed a set of goals to help address the opioid problem in Milwaukee County, which include making sure there’s access for safe medication disposal, treatment for people who use drugs and making sure medications that lead to addiction aren’t being overly prescribed.

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Overdoses from heroin and prescription painkillers are killing thousands of people around the country. In Milwaukee County alone, more than 270 died from drug overdoses in the first eight months of this year. Recently, 11 people passed away over a four-day period.

A number of efforts have been launched to fight the problem. They include a task force the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County created about six months ago, which seeks to fight the abuse of heroin, opioid painkillers and cocaine.

Heroin and opioid addictions -- and overdoses -- continue to plague Wisconsin and many other states. Public health officials and law enforcement agencies have been tackling the problem on a number of fronts. The latest here in Wisconsin premiered Tuesday night. It's a documentary produced by WisconsinEye, the state's equivalent to C-Span, and targets children.

President Trump declared a public health emergency to deal with the opioid epidemic Thursday, freeing up some resources for treatment. More than 140 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We are currently dealing with the worst drug crisis in American history," Trump said, adding, "it's just been so long in the making. Addressing it will require all of our effort."

"We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic," he said.

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